The Role of Vacuum Fluctuations and Symmetry in the Hydrogen Atom in Quantum Mechanics and Stochastic Electrodynamics (SED)

TL;DR

This paper explores how vacuum fluctuations and symmetry considerations influence the hydrogen atom's behavior in quantum mechanics and stochastic electrodynamics, addressing longstanding challenges in modeling atomic stability.

Contribution

It analyzes the role of symmetry and radiation reaction in SED and quantum mechanics, offering new insights into the hydrogen atom's stability and ionization.

Findings

SED prevents electron collapse but leads to ionization

Symmetry considerations are crucial for understanding atomic stability

Comparison of quantum vacuum effects with stochastic electromagnetic fields

Abstract

Stochastic Electrodynamics (SED) has had success modeling black body radiation, the harmonic oscillator, the Casimir effect, van der Waals forces, diamagnetism, and uniform acceleration of electrodynamic systems using the stochastic zero-point fluctuations of the electromagnetic field with classical mechanics. However the hydrogen atom, with its 1/r potential remains a critical challenge. Cole and Zou in 2003 and Nieuwenhuizen and Liska in 2015 found that the SED field prevented the electron orbit from collapsing into the proton but eventually the atom became ionized. We look at the issues of the H atom and SED from the perspective of symmetry of the quantum mechanical Hamiltonian which is used to obtain the quantum mechanical results, and the Abraham-Lorentz equation, which is a force equation that includes the effects of radiation reaction and is used to obtain the SED simulations. We contrast the physical computed effects of the quantized electromagnetic vacuum flucuations with the role of the real stochastic electromagnetic field.